Psychedelic Mini-Festival Takes Over Brixton's Windmill

Chris Lockie
By Chris Lockie Last edited 120 months ago
Psychedelic Mini-Festival Takes Over Brixton's Windmill

NorthernStarWeekender

Time to unfurl the fringe once again, music lovers: over three days of the coming weekend (28-30 March), the Windmill in Brixton is to become Mecca for psychedelic sounds, gloom pop, shoegaze and all those other types of music that have you staring at the floor in joy, if such a thing can be imagined.

The Northern Star Weekender originally began as part of the legendary SXSW festival in Texas in 2006, and this weekend's three-day shindig is the third time Northern Star Records has unleashed an array of top rock bands on the Windmill. Among the extremely loud bands you will find yourself accosted by should you make your way to SW2 this weekend are cult shoegaze unit 93MillionMilesFromTheSun, ear-bleeding sonic assaulters White Noise Sound, and Romford indie rock veterans The Wolfhounds, who play the Windmill on Sunday night (30 March). Here is their 1986 classic, 'The Anti-Midas Touch'.

Northern Star Records this week releases three new records to celebrate the weekend ahead: a vinyl-only release called 'Live Revolution' comprises the best of last year's Northern Star Weekender, a split 7" single featuring the bands Electric Mainline and Soundwire, and the sophomore album by Swedish shoegaze kings Youngteam, titled 'Fading into Night'. Each will be on sale at the Windmill this weekend, while Youngteam themselves headline the festival on Saturday night (29 March).

The Windmill is getting itself a bit of a reputation for putting on mini-festivals of this type. In the next few weeks, it curates an eight-bands-in-one-night event called Bad Friday on, of course, Good Friday (including a barbecue). Plus, Euroheedfest IV, the fourth annual celebration of the band Guided By Voices, including EuroHeedfest house band Band Of Pricks, fronted by the actor and huge fan of GBV, Paddy Considine.

Tickets cost from £8 to £10 for each individual day of the Northern Star Weekender, or a nice round £20 for a three-day pass. Should you pop down to the Windmill this weekend for a quiet pint it would be wise to think again, as if there's one thing the Windmill won't be this weekend: quiet.

The Norther Star Weekender takes place at the Windmill in Brixton, 28-30 March. Tickets are available via the Windmill's listings page. Image courtesy of Amanda Farah via the Londonist Flickr Pool.

Last Updated 24 March 2014